Ali M. Ali
13 January 2009
Abuja — For former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, the worst times appear far from being over.
Few days after setting the International Police (Interpol) on his trail after he was declared wanted in the country to answer to some alleged misdeeds, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday in Abuja raided a company allegedly owned by him.
The company is called Security Properties Development Consortium.
EFCC also arrested its Managing Director, Mallam Idris Usman, and six other workers.
It was gathered that the EFCC operatives recovered documents belonging to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), land allocation forms and lists of revoked lands during the raid.
The EFCC officials were said to be working on the theory that the former minister used the company as a front to corner choice plots in the FCT to himself, sometimes listing non-existent people as beneficiaries.
The company was said to have become a land allocation agency the various sums of money when el-Rufai was in charge as FCT minister.
When contacted last night, EFCC Spokesman Femi Babafemi confirmed the raid on the company.
The battle of wits playing out between EFCC and el-Rufai heightened two weeks ago when the commission declared him wanted.
The commission said el-Rufai was "wanted for abuse of office and misappropriation of public funds to the tune of N32 billion".
EFCC had before then invited the former minister to appear before it on November 28, 2008 in connection with petitions against him in respect of alleged mismanagement of proceeds of N32 billion accruing from the sale of Federal Government property in Abuja.
The former minister through his lawyer, however, wrote to the commission informing it of his inability to honour the invitation as a result of his studies overseas.
He asked the commission then to send its questions to him.
This prompted EFCC to grant him another three weeks grace.
In a bid to prevent the commission from declaring him wanted or ordering his arrest over the matter, el-Rufai later dragged EFCC to the Federal High Court, Abuja.
And in a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview monitored in Kaduna, the former minister said he would not return to the country to honour the invitation until he was through with his studies in the United States.
But EFCC, in a statement by Babafemi, had said, "The need to declare el-Rufai wanted became imperative following his failure to honour a simple invitation from the commission to respond to weighty allegations leveled against him in petitions being investigated by the commission".
After declaring him wanted, EFCC also wrote to Interpol to help the commission track down the ex-minister.
A national newspaper reported at the weekend that the EFCC had told Interpol that el-Rufai jumped bail in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, counsel to the former minister, Barrister A.U Mustapha, insists EFCC cannot arrest el-Rufai after legal process has commenced on his matter.
Mustapha said that he had filed a suit numbered FHC/AB/CS/669/2008 on behalf of el-Rufai at the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking to restrain the commission from declaring him wanted, arresting, intimidating or harassing him pending the determination of the suit.
He said the commission "cannot attempt to undermine the course of justice in a regime that seeks to respect the rule of law."
He said: "The case was filed Monday, 15 December 2008, and service was effected on the EFCC the following day in line with the judicial decisions in Obeya Memorial Hospital Versus AG of the Federation and Ojukwu Versus Governor of Lagos State."
He further said the commission had been served with the legal processes, stating that it could not have claimed ignorance of this.
Mustapha claimed that he had forwarded a letter to that effect to the commission's Director of Operations, Mr.Tunde Ogunsakin, to notify the commission of the pending suit and to request the commission to stay action pending the determination of the suit.
The matter is still pending before the court.
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